The Palestinian landscape remains confused and deeply complex, as it has throughout the past three years. Many indicators suggest that considerable effort will be required to move from the current cycle of tension and escalation towards even a temporary period of calm and stability.
This time, however, events in the Gaza Strip are not overshadowing everything else. Gaza, the small and besieged enclave that has endured, and continues to endure, one of the most brutal genocidal wars in modern history, no longer stands alone at the centre of the Palestinian scene.
Another arena in historic Palestine has now joined it. Although the West Bank has never been spared the attacks of the occupation and its settlers, the past three months have witnessed a marked escalation, particularly in settlement expansion and the serious attacks and violations committed by Zionist settlers against Palestinian civilians.
Settler Violence Across the West Bank
The events of “Black Friday” in the village of Tell, south-west of Nablus, on the 24th of this month drew particular attention to the attacks taking place across West Bank towns and villages.
Yet this pattern of violations did not begin there. It has continued throughout recent months and for years before that, including the period preceding the formation of Israel’s far-right government almost four years ago.
Since the current government came to power, however, there has been a clear rise in the scale of violence and criminality carried out by Zionist settlers under the protection and with the support of the Israeli military.
Alongside the events in Tell, further attacks took place in Qusra, south of Nablus, Kur, south of Tulkarm, Far’ata, near Qalqilya, and many other villages.
Settler attacks have included the burning of mosques, the establishment of small settlement outposts on hilltops, and gunfire directed at Palestinian homes, leaving a number of residents wounded.
These attacks can be viewed as an attempt to place greater pressure on Palestinians, force them to leave their villages and homes, and empty as much West Bank land as possible. This would create the conditions for Israel to impose complete control over the territory, or at least most of it, at a later stage.
The Rush Towards Annexation
Over the past three years, particularly since the launch of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation in October 2023, the Zionist entity has entered a new phase of seizing Palestinian land in the West Bank.
Specialists have described this period as a “rush towards annexation”.
Israel has shifted from official state-led settlement construction towards what could be described as the “field privatisation” of settlement expansion.
Approximately 28,000 settlement housing units were approved in 2025, the highest number recorded in many years.
During the same period, so-called “pastoral settlement” also expanded. Under this model, a small number of settlers erect a tent with a flock of sheep and then gradually seize thousands of surrounding dunams under the full protection and security of the Israeli military.
According to official Palestinian data, more than 780,000 settlers now live in West Bank colonies.
The number of settlements and settlement outposts has reached approximately 544, including 192 officially recognised settlements and 355 outposts spread across the various West Bank governorates.
Ramallah and Al-Bireh, Hebron and Nablus have the highest numbers of settlements.
Together with their bypass roads, these colonies consume extensive areas amounting to more than 12 per cent of the entire West Bank.
Conditions for an Explosion
All these figures, whether concerning the number of settlements or settlers, are expected to rise in the coming period.
Combined with the escalation in attacks and violations now supported by Israel’s ruling right-wing coalition to an unprecedented degree, this makes an explosion across West Bank cities increasingly likely.
The possibility is no longer merely theoretical. It is approaching reality, particularly after the courageous resistance shown by the residents of Tell, which many expect could be repeated elsewhere.
This is especially likely as settler calls intensify for further seizures of Palestinian land and homes and for the expulsion of their original owners.
In an earlier phase, Palestinians in the West Bank exercised considerable restraint, particularly after the unprecedented Israeli assault that followed the launch of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation.
The Palestinian Authority also made sustained efforts, and continues to do so, to contain the consequences of settler attacks and Israeli military crimes.
Those crimes included the destruction of large sections of refugee camps in the northern West Bank, particularly in Jenin and Tulkarm.
The Authority, however, made no meaningful effort to stop these attacks or even limit their effects on residents who were expelled from their homes and left homeless overnight.
A Changing Palestinian Mood
In recent weeks, the public mood among Palestinians in the West Bank appears to have begun shifting towards confrontation.
This has been reflected in an increase in individual operations, including vehicle-ramming and stabbing attacks over the past two weeks, as well as in local resistance to settler assaults in several areas, most notably Tell in the Nablus district.
Although still limited, this shift can be understood as a response to a series of recent events marked by repeated settler provocations.
It also reflects growing Palestinian frustration over the continued pace of attacks and the weak and ineffective response of the Palestinian Authority.
The Authority appears to have abandoned many of its responsibilities to defend its people and protect their interests. Its primary concern has instead become securing the safety of occupation soldiers and Zionist settlers who mistakenly enter Palestinian-controlled areas.
Israeli intelligence agencies have issued warnings about an increase in operations across the West Bank and the possibility that they could eventually develop into something resembling a “West Bank Flood”.
These concerns are growing as the Israeli government adopts many settler attacks as official policy and legalises numerous outposts that previous governments had classified as illegal and contrary to law.
Israeli Warnings of a Wider Uprising
Israeli intelligence agencies are not alone in issuing such warnings.
Many Israeli media outlets and prominent writers have also cautioned against the same scenario.
The well-known Israeli journalist Amira Hass made this argument several days ago, noting that Palestinians had shown considerable restraint despite the escalation in settler attacks and provocative settler tours through their communities.
She said their patience was beginning to run out.
Hass argued that systematic settler provocations were bringing Israel closer to implementing the “Decisive Plan” promoted by Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
The plan aims to subjugate Palestinians, drive them towards mass migration and dismantle all forms of internal social cohesion.
The Consequences of a West Bank Flood
Should a “West Bank Flood” erupt, as many expect, the regional landscape would become even more tense and complicated.
This would not only be because of the presence of the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority, or because of the international reaction likely to follow.
Foreign governments reject any Israeli guardianship over West Bank cities that possess Palestinian sovereignty under the Oslo Accords.
More importantly, however, the geography of West Bank towns and cities could turn them into deadly ambush zones for the thousands of settlers who travel through their streets day and night, as well as for Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli military has consistently faced difficult operational conditions when fighting in West Bank cities and refugee camps.
Some of these towns and camps are only minutes away from the centres of major Israeli cities.
This geographical reality carries serious implications for Israel’s intelligence and security agencies.
A Possible Wave of Operations
In the coming weeks, a major wave of individual attacks may erupt, potentially accompanied by broad popular confrontations.
Such developments would almost certainly come in response to the growing aggression of Zionist settlers and to expansionist projects that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is seeking to impose on the ground.
These projects would confiscate thousands of dunams of Palestinian land.
Palestinians increasingly feel that their very presence on their land is under threat and that greater effort and sacrifice will be required to defeat the occupation’s plans.
That is something the Palestinian people have mastered more than any other people in the world.
